Born in 1971 in Beckenham, Kent, England, legend has it that at the age of five Richard Smith was captivated by a fingerstyle tune his father was playing (“Down South Blues”) and begged to be taught how to play it. While Richard is left-handed and no suitable guitar was available for his small hands, he apparently mastered the chords and melody of the tune in one day.

Other tunes in the Chet Atkins/Merle Travis fingerstyle tradition soon entered young Richard’s repertoire and it was evident to his parents that they had a child prodigy on their hands. In addition to being a guitaristic quick study, it was determined that Richard also had a photographic memory.

Richard was fortunate to meet one of his (and his father’s) guitar heroes fairly early in life; at the age of eleven, Chet Atkins invited him to play onstage with him at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London where he wowed an audience of about a thousand with Chet’s arrangement of “Whispering” followed by “Little Rock Getaway”. By the time Richard was in his twenties, both Chet and Jerry Reed had begun to call him their “hero”.

At this writing Richard Smith’s repertoire contains examples of just about every guitar style one can imagine including: country, bluegrass, mainstream and Gypsy jazz, pop, rock, and classical selections. He now lives in Nashville and often appears in concert with fiddler Aaron Till and his wife, American cellist, Julie Adams. In addition to being a featured performer at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS) convention held each July in Nashville, Richard has performed worldwide as a soloist and with ensembles ranging from the Richard Smith Trio (with brothers Sam and Rob) to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

To learn more about Richard Smith and his music, please see his website at: www.richardsmithmusic.com